Finding the right intensity of movement to help relieve fibromyalgia and other chronic pain is different from person to person. While movement is important to feeling better, too much can cause a flare-up. The gentle stretches and exercises in this video, when done at one’s own pace, may help relieve the pain. Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions can cause pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and even emotional/mental health issues.
In this essential guide, Dr. Leslie Kernisan delves into the transformative power of exercise for older adults. Discover how tailored physical activity combats muscle loss and frailty and enhances mental well-being and cognitive function, paving the way for a life of independence and quality. This video is a treasure trove of expert insights, from the science behind muscle ageing reversal to practical advice on incorporating strength, aerobic, balance, and flexibility exercises into your routine.
A sedentary lifestyle puts strain on young hearts CREDIT University of Jyväskylä.
According to a recent Finnish study, high levels of sedentary behaviour and physical inactivity from childhood strain the heart in adolescence. High cardiac workload predicts heart failure and other heart diseases. In light of the findings, increasing moderate and vigorous physical activity from childhood onwards is particularly important in preventing heart diseases.
In a collaborative study by the Faculty of Sport Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä and the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Eastern Finland, sedentary behaviour and physical activity were followed from childhood to adolescence for eight years. The study showed that adolescents accumulating high levels of sedentary behaviour and low levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity from childhood onwards had a higher cardiac workload in adolescence. Cardiac workload was particularly high in adolescents, who accumulated low vigorous physical activity levels.
In addition, high levels of sedentary behaviour and low levels of physical activity were associated with a higher total body fat percentage. Body fat percentage partly explained the associations between sedentary behaviour, physical activity, and cardiac workload. Light physical activity was not associated with cardiac workload.
The results emphasise the importance of increasing physical activity, especially moderate and vigorous activity, reducing sedentary behaviour, and preventing overweight from childhood to prevent heart diseases.
“Youth spend nine to ten hours a day being sedentary,” says Dr Eero Haapala from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, “and only one in ten adolescents accumulated 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity. These are worrying figures.”
“High levels of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity should be a normal part of childhood and adolescence as it improves heart health, but also general well-being,” Haapala emphasises.
Consistent adherence to physical activity guidelines throughout middle-age is associated with a higher health-related quality of life in women, according to a new study publishing May 2nd in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Binh Nguyen of University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues.
The evidence for an association between physical activity and health-related quality of life has been based primarily on cross-sectional studies and short-term randomized controlled trials. Few longitudinal studies have measured physical activity at more than one-time point and examined the long-term causal effects of exercise.
In the new study, researchers used data collected at three-year intervals beginning in 1996 from 11,336 participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Women were born from 1946 through 1951, making them 47 to 52 years old at the study outset. Participants were classified as either meeting WHO physical activity guidelines — of 150 minutes of activity a week — consistently throughout the fifteen-year exposure period, not initially meeting the guidelines but starting to meet them at age 55, 60 or 65, or never meeting the guidelines. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the physical health composite score (PCS) and mental health composite score (MCS) from the Short Form 36 Health Survey, which includes 36 questions about functional health and well-being.
On average, people who consistently met physical activity guidelines and those who first started to meet guidelines at age 55 had a three-point higher PCS (46.93 [95% CI 46.32 to 47.54] and 46.96 [95% CI 45.53 to 48.40], respectively), compared to those that did not meet physical activity guidelines (43.90 [95% CI 42.79 to 45.01]). The effect of physical activity on the PSC was significant even after controlling for socioeconomic factors and pre-existing health diagnoses. However, there was no significant association between physical activity and MCS.
“Combined with existing evidence, this study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age,” the authors say. “An important public health message is that being active for as many years as possible, even if women start to meet physical activity guidelines in their mid-50s, could have important health benefits in terms of physical health, especially in physical functioning.”
The authors add, “Our study shows that it’s important for women to be active throughout mid-age to gain the most benefits for physical health in later life. Ideally, women should increase their activity levels to meet the guidelines by age 55.”
